Niagara At Large

From the Office of Ontario PC Leader Tim Hudak

QUEEN’S PARK – October 1, 2013 – While the Liberals will undoubtedly conjure the celebratory illusion that their 10 years in power Wednesday will not mark a lost decade, the Ontario PC Caucus will today shine the light that will lead Ontario out of its economic darkness.

Ontario Conservative Leader Tim Hudak says we in Niagara, Ontario and rest of province have had 10 lost years under the Liberals.

“The way out of this black hole is to face the fact that the debt and deficit under the Liberals are already out of control,” says PC Finance Critic Vic Fedeli. “The reality is that a half million men and women wake up every day without a job to go to. And that’s just wrong.”

“All this has to change, and we will change it,” says Fedeli. “As Ontario PC Leader Tim Hudak has said: it won’t be easy, but it can be done, and it will be worth it.” Continue reading →

A News Commentary by Doug Draper

It was a no brainer four months ago when Niagara area MPP Cindy Forster pressed Ontario’s Liberal government to pass a bill that would ban tanning beds for people 18 years old and younger, and it is a no brainer now.

Niagara students David Nguyen, left, and Sarah Lukaszczyk and Karen Babcock, to the right, present MPP Cindy Forster this past spring with more than 2,500 post cards, signed by young people in support of a tanning bed ban in Ontario.

So what is Premier Kathleen Wynne and her government waiting for ? What is the hold up when five other Canadian provinces have already approved such a ban and when public health experts across North America have been warning for years that the amount of UV exposure from these tanning systems increases the risk of skin cancer and raises that risk for younger people by as much as 75 per cent? Continue reading →

By Dr. Randy Malamud, Regents’ Professor of English at Georgia State University and chair of the department

(A Brief Note from Niagara At Large – With the September 27 screening of Blackfish in Niagara, Ontario in support of four individuals sued by Marineland, NAL has received permission to post  this insightful piece featured on the independent news and commentary site TruthOut this September 28. We thank Randy for granting that permission and hope its posting here enriches the discussion and debate around capturing and keeping marine mammals in captivity for reasons of commercial proft and amusement.)

In  Blackfish, Gabriella Cowperthwaite’s sleeper hit documentary about a tragedy at Orlando’s SeaWorld, audiences are tempted (or at least I was) to empathize with Tilikum, the orca who killed his trainer Dawn Brancheau during a 2010 performance. The whale had been abused for decades in the service of mindless human entertainment masquerading as environmental education. (“SeaWorld artfully combines education and entertainment in a way that connects people to the sea and sea life like nowhere else,” their webpage boasts.)

I felt a kind of poetic justice in the whale’s eventual revolt against the handler, who must have epitomized, for him, the humiliating institutions of captive animal displays where he had had the misfortune to spend his life.

He was a “killer whale,” and he killed – what part of this was unexpected?

To continue reading  this commentary by Randy Malamud please click on  http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/18954-a-tale-of-a-whale  , then after you have read this piece return to Niagara At Large at www.niagaratlarge.com and leave your views on Randy’s commentary here so we can keep the discussion on this issue going.

By John Bacher

 “Way down upon the Maumee River, Far, far, away, There’s where  my heart is turning ever, That’s where the algal stays, Up and down old Lake Erie, Sadly I roam, Still longing for clean beaches, Without slimy foam, Old Lake Eire  is sad and dreary, Everywhere I roam,  Oh,   how my heart grows so weary, Making me moan and groan …”

The fish are dying in Lake Erie, alright. This one swamped up along the shore, surrounded by algae we humans are, most indeed, responsible for. Lake Erie dying for the second time in half a century? When are we ever going to learn.

“All around the beach I wandered, When I was young, Then may happy days I squandered, Many songs I sung, When I was playing with my brother, Happy was I, Now the green algae is piling  higher, Making the fish die. …”

Words  by John Bacher to the tune of ‘Way Down Upon The Swanee River

It may seem strange to those in Niagara, Ontario and the Buffalo/Erie County, New York area  that way down upon the Maumee River far, far away in Ohio  there is an impact on our region from the phosphorous loadings of the American corn belt. Continue reading →

Ontario NDP Health Critic France Gelinas

A Statement from the Office of Ontario NDP Health Critic France Gelina 

(A Brief Note from Niagara At Large – Some of us who choose to pay attention may recall that this is the same Ontario eHealth agency that blew away about a billion dollars in consultant contracts to create a provincial health records registry I don’t believe is fully functional to this day.)

September 27^th, 2013 – “ Ontario’s precious healthcare dollars should be invested in helping people get healthy and stay healthy. Not golden parachutes for eHealth Executives. Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

Ontario’s Liberal government ought to stop talking about expanding Go Transit services into the Niagara region and start doing it by getting a regular Go Train service on the rails, says Welland Riding MPP Cindy Forster.

Cindy Forster, representing the Niagara, Ontario riding of Welland in the provincial legislature, calls for more train transit servces between this region and the Greater Toronto Area. .

During Question Period in the Ontario Legislature this September 25^th, Forster called on the Liberal government to get going on a promise it has previously made to move toward regular, daily Go Train service between communities in Niagara and the Greater Toronto Area.

“It’s bad enough that VIA Rail service (a federally funded rail transit system) has been slashed,” said Forster, “but it’s even harder for Niagara families to understand why this government keeps wavering on expansion of Go Train service. …. The Liberal government,” she added, “is so focused on sticking Ontarians with the bill for more transit promised in the GTA, that it seems to have forgotten that commuters depend on buses and trains to get them to work in regions like Niagara.” Continue reading →

NAL Final Reminder Blackfish,

From NAL publisher Doug Draper

This Friday evening at 7 p.m., you have the opportunity to view an exclusive screening of Blackfish – a crtically acclaimed, Oscar contender of a film that dramatizes the plight of whales being exploited for peoples’ entertainment at amusement parks – at Sir Winston Churchill Secondary School on 101 Glen Morris Drive, below the Niagara Escarpment and  off Glenridge Avenue in St. Catharines, Ontario.

An Orca – a species of whale dubbed so wrongly and unfortunately as “killer whales” – does what it was trained to do at an amusement park somewhere in North America.

And by buying a ticket to attend this special event, which will include expert speakers on marine mammals, you will be supporting four advocates for the freedom of marine mammals, including three former employees from the Marineland Park in Niagara Falls, Ontario, who have been slapped with million dollar lawsuits for speaking out about the park in ways the park’s owners and operators allege were damaging to its interests.

You can purchase tickets to this event for $15 at the door or for $10 in advance at the Rise Above Restaurant on 120 St. Paul Street in downtown St. Catharines.

You can also find out more about the film, the purpose for this event and click on a link for a trailer for Blackfish by visiting a story NAL posted here about a week ago. Find that story by clicking on https://niagaraatlarge.com/2013/09/15/critically-acclaimed-documentary-to-premiere-in-niagara-ontario-in-support-of-defendants-slapped-with-marineland-lawsuits/ .

 (Niagara At Large invites all of those who dare to share their first and last name with their views on this issue to share a comment in the space below.)

By Dan Wilson

So it appears we’re going to have another Native deer hunt in Short Hills. That will be the second one this year, only this time the park will be closed for all four weekends in November, up from two weekends back in January.

Ontario parks officers and Native representatives face off with opponents of a deer hunt in Sjhort Hills Provincial Park in Niagara, Ontario. Photo by Dan Wilson

The announcement came from the Ministry of Natural Resources on September 19^th  at White Meadows Farms in Pelham, where the MNR staged an impromptu open house to answer the public’s questions.

A few representatives of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy also attended to clear up any misconceptions people might have about the “harvest” and why we (anyone not Native to Canada) need to respect the Natives’ culture. Continue reading →

By Mark Taliano

For years now, the federal government has been censuring, muzzling, de-funding, and laying off scientists, librarians, archivists, statisticians, and researchers in its efforts vacate government involvement in core research, and to shift its focus to industry-specific needs.

Scientists forced to rally for science in Harper’s Canada.

There are three granting councils that allocate federal funding for research in Canada: the  Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), the Natural Sciences and Engineering Council (NSERC), and the Canadian Institute of Health Research (CIHR).  In constant dollars, from 2007-2013, base funding for SSHR has decreased by 10.1%; funding for NSERC has decreased by 6.4%; and funding for CIHR has decreased by 7.5%. Meanwhile, NSERC funding aimed at “company-specific” problems has increased (between 2001-2012) by 1178%, while success rates for CIHR grants has dropped by 61 per cent. Continue reading →

News and Commentary by Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper

Less than six months after we learned of the death of Peter Kormos, one of Niagara, Ontario’s and this province’s political icons, we are suddenly struk by the news that Niagara Falls MPP Kim Craitor is resigning from politics.

Niagara Falls MPP Kim Craitor, speaking out at a rally to save hospitals in south Niagara, a move that might not have won many brownie points with his own Liberal government. File photo by Doug Draper

Not that Kim Craitor, just a few days away from celebrating his 67^th birthday, has taken the final exit, as Peter Kormos so unfortunately did when he was found dead at his Welland home late this past March. Kim is still very much in this world for himself and his family. But he has suddenly announced, this September 24^th afternoon, that he is leaving public office just the same.

In a brief written statement, and I’ve been told that Craitor was not doing interviews this day as much as he has always been available for interviews in the past, he said that “while it is never a good time to leave, after ten very productive and rewarding years, now I need to put my health and family first.” One of Craitor’s close friends and helpers told NHL that when it comes down to it, Craitor has given it his all and feels physically and mentally burned out. Continue reading →

By Daniel K. Wilson

(A Brief Foreword from Niagara At Large Doug Draper – I first met Dan Wilson close to two decades ago while still covering environmental issues for the late, great, independent St. Catharines Standard.

Dan was one of the earlier individuals in this Niagara, Ontario region who worked to raise awareness about the wrongness of imprisoning magnificent ocean mammals like orca whales and dolphins in cement tanks in amusement parks like Marineland in Niagara Falls. For his efforts he was later sued by Marineland – a lawsuit that was later dropped, but not before Canadian scientist and CBC Nature of Things host David Suzuki spoke her to raise funds for Dan’s defense.

 What is also true of Dan, and what I learned much later, is that he is also a very talented nature photographer and Niagara At Large has been fortunate to feature some of his photos here during the first couple of years this site has been doing its best to offer something new and independent in this region of the world.

This October you can enjoy some of Dan’s fine photography on display at the Pelham Public Library, located at 43 Pelham Square in the town of Fonthill. For further information on the library and its location and hours click on www.pelhamlibrary.on.ca/ .

 Now I leave it to Dan to discuss this exhibit of his work in his words.)

Dan calls this photo ‘Angry Bull Tree’. 

I see faces everywhere; always have. When I was a little kid I did what other little kids did: I looked up in the sky searching for faces and animals hiding in the clouds. But being a creative and somewhat obsessive little guy I didn’t stop there. I would look for faces in floor tiles, on trees or floating around in my cereal bowl.

And I still do. I can spend hours at Little Cove near Tobermory scouring the beach in search of boulders that seem to be staring back up at me, or carefully inspecting every frozen puddle I come across in Short Hill Provincial Park hoping to find something that catches my eye. Continue reading →

By Pamela Minns

Where have all the letters gone ?

Rosemary Hale, former Dean of Humanities at Brock, University, championed a performing arts centre for Niagara, Ontario

I have been a subscriber to The St. Catharines Standard for probably over 40 years and the one section that I enjoyed reading the most was the Letters to the Editor — opinions that came from the community.

I have noticed recently, that this section of the newspaper is almost non-existent – possibly two or three letters a week – there used to be hundreds of them !  I was a regular contributor, and there was always a “line up” to get a letter printed – but it did get printed !   I think if I were in business one of the things that would be of utmost importance to me would be the feedback from my customers – that is the only way to make things better;  but, it would seem that the readers are not the customers any more – it is the advertisers ! Continue reading →

By Mark Taliano

For some time now, opponents to equitable, universal health care have been smearing proponents of Canada’s “signature” social program, Medicare, by using a corporate “communications” strategy known as “FUD”, which stands for Fear Uncertainty Doubt.

Rallies for saving public health care are becoming more common in Canada

In the U.S, the dynamic played out fairly recently, with the launch of Michael Moore’s film, SICKO.  According to Wendell Potter, an American insurance industry whistleblower, the insurance industry, horrified by the poignancy of the documentary, targeted Michael Moore with a “FUD” attack.

Potter explains that the CIGNA insurance company tried to undermine Moore by portraying his as a communist, or a socialist, and as someone who was trying to undermine the American Dream. Continue reading →

A Foreword by Doug Draper, publisher, Niagara At Large

(We’ve heard most of the crap, over and over again, from Tim Hudak/Mike Harris/Tea Party-type s in ths region, around how these wind farms are going to destroy their health and diminish the value of their properties. And of course, if they keep up this negative rhetoric they are being spoon-fed by from corporate interests in the nuclear, gas and coal industries, and over and over again from a Hudak, some of their worst fears might come true. Self-fulfilling prophesies, if even half of these idiots know what a self-fullfilling prophecy is, have a way of coming true – specially the part about their property values.

Thanks to a majority on Niagara, Ontario’s regional council, we may never see this here. How pathetic. How unprogressive this regional government is.

Just keep telling the rest of the world, over and over again, ad nausea, that wind farms or solar panel farms are the worst things you can have in your community, and you might just devalue the value of property even more than it might be devalued if a coal-fired power plant or nuclear power plant, which are apparently your alternative energy sources, were located in your neighbourhood.

Now Niagara At Large wants to offer you the full text of an alternative voice from the Niagara, Ontario community of Lincoln, Ontario who tried to speak to a Niagara regional council whose majority of members would eventually re-vote for a position the council approved this past spring, essentially saying that Niagara, Ontario is unfriendly to renewable energy industries.

Here is the test of the talk by Lincoln/Beamsville, Ontario resident Virgil Nose. Keep in mind that it took a lot of courage for this individual to deliver this speech with many dozens of anti-wind farm people in the audience who, at times, audibly hissed him.)

Good evening,

My name is Virgil Nose and I am a resident of Beamsville.

I want to talk about a divisive subject – Wind Turbines. As I understand it, there are many people against the construction of Wind Turbines in Niagara. Continue reading →

A Commentary by Doug Draper, Niagara At Large

So we may wonder why Niagara, Ontario has one of the highest unemployment rates in all of Canada, and why so many young people feel the need to leave for greener pastures in a region that is hostile to any progressive thinking around public transit, governance reform or almost any other change that might move it forward.

Niagara’s Ontario Region has made it clear, once again, that it is a ‘no zone’ for a 21st century renewable energy industry.

Well, this September 19^th, anyone who bothered to pay attention – which is far too few of us, I’m afraid – got another whiff of the 1950s stench that keeps this region from moving forward economically, environmentally and almost any other way. This one came when a majority of the regional government’s councillors voted in favour of keeping entrenched a motion many of the same councillors endorsed this past spring – to declare at least two local municipalities in this region “unwilling hosts” for wind turbines capable of generating renewable energy.

What these councillors bluntly said to a rapidly growing renewable energy industry around the world is; ‘Go to hell. We don’t want you here in Niagara.’ And this is coming from a region where, one might laugh if it were not so sad, had the audacity to declare itself “the Green Energy Capital of Canada” somewhere around a year ago. Continue reading →

By Doug Draper, Niagara At Large

In a letter to top U.S. environment officials, Ontario’s environment minister has urged them not to take a dangerous chemical waste dump near the brink of the Niagara River gorge off of their ‘National Priority List’ where it would continue to remain an object of close scrutiny.

The Hyde Park dump is located just outside the lower right corner of this photo of the Queenston-Lewiston Bridge, near the brink of the Niagara River Gorge. When it was leaking, full blast, through the cracked bedrock to the river below, its poisons spread throughout Lake Ontario and helped almost destroy a healthy fishery in the lake. Two countries – Germany and Japan – once stopped purchasing fish products from Lake Ontario due to the high concentrations of chemicals in the fish flesh, associated with this dump.

“Ontario continues to oppose deletion of the site from the NPL,” said Ontario Environment Minister Jim Bradley in a letter he transmitted this September 19^th  to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Gina McCarthy and EPA’s Mew York emergency and remedial response division director Walter Mugdan in response to plans to possibly de-list the Hyde Park chemical dump in Niagara County, New York from EPA’s decades-old Superfund Site program.

“We are concerned about the potential for failure of the aging remedial infrastructure at the site and the lack of clarity around the party or parties responsible for perpetual maintenance of the remedial works. Continue reading →

By Doug Draper, Niagara At Large

May seem hard to believe or maybe not for the 20-something bunch out there, but it was 50 years ago in 1963,  that the fourth and most recent bridge crossing the Niagara River between Canada and the United States – the Queenston-Lewiston Bridge – was opened.

The Lewiston-Queenston or the Queenston-Lewiston, call it what you want, it was the last bridge built across the Niagara River between two neighbours.

This September 19^th,  Canadian and American dignitaries will be celebrating that anniversary in what has been described by bridge authorities as a “private ceremony for regional dignatiaries and border operators..” This private celebration follows, in case we all missed it a large fireworks display over the Horseshoe Falls in nearby Niagara Falls, Ontario and New York that apparently had something to do with remembering the opening of the Queenston-Lewiston Bridge or, by the way, the Lewiston-Queenston Bridge, whichever side of the border you are on and whichever way you want to look at it. Continue reading →

A Foreword by Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper

They have become more and more common over the past 30 or so years. And it has reached a point where they and members of the legal fraternity that launch them for whatever deep-pocket clients hire them, could scare all too many Canadians away from exercising whatever right they have left in this country to a free expression of their views.

If we lose that right, God damn it, we might just as well go live some God-awful piss hole of a place like Syria, North Korea, China or Russia.

So what this post is all about, whether you are a liberal or conservative or something else or none of those, is about is protecting what is left of what past generations of our country people fought for on the beaches of Normandy and elsewhere in this world where they laid their lives down for democracy

This is about asking all of you to support Canadian public interest groups like the Niagara-based Marineland Animal Defense (MAD), the Council of Canadians, members of Canadian Journalists for Free Expression, Greenpeace, and more than 130 other citizen groups across this country to urge your Ontario MPP and the Ontario government at large to do what is right. It is about askng asking this Ontario government of Kathleen Wynne to do what other provinces across this country and many states across our neighbouring United States have already done and make it harder for those with deep pockets to hire lawyers with few principles that have anything to do with the spirit of this great country to shut the rest of us up with what are called SLAPP suits or Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation.

We have witnessed this again in Niagara with the SLAPP suits filed against a number of people, including former employees, who have expressed their concerns about alleged mistreatment of mammals at Marineland in Niagara Falls, Ontario. Among other things, these “defamation” suits are intended to shut people who believe that concrete tubs in places like this is no place for whales and other marine mammals.

What is amazing so far, is that it hasn’t shut them up. If anything, citizens across this country of Canada and the United States are rallying to their defense. When will the Ontario government by putting an end to SLAPP suits that do little more than enrich lawyers and cost taxpayers more to support our court system, and most of all, strive to kill or chill free expression in a province and country that is supposed to stand for democracy for all!

Now here is a news release posted today by Marineland Animal Defense, Greenpeace Canada, The council of Canadians and Canadian Journalists for Free Expression on behalf of groups representing hundreds of thousands of citizens across this great country.

140 groups call on Ontario legislature to make public advocacy bill top priority

September 18th, 2013 (Toronto) – Over 140 groups, including environmental organizations, unions and freedom of expression advocates, are calling on the Ontario legislature to adopt strong legislation to prevent Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPPs) from being used to limit freedom of expression, public participation and prevent the abuse of libel laws.

These legal suits are all about stopping this. Canadians who believe in freedom of speech have to stand up against SLAPP suits now.

Anti-SLAPP laws, which have already been adopted in Quebec, a majority of U.S. states and several other countries are designed to prevent powerful companies and individuals from lodging meritless lawsuits, often for defamation, which are designed not to protect reputation but to silence critics. These lawsuits burden defendants, often public interest advocacy groups, with massive legal fees, draining their resources and distracting them from their core work. As such, they exert a chilling effect on freedom of expression and make it more difficult for civil society to act as watchdog of the powerful. Continue reading →

A Short News Brief and Comment from Doug Draper, Niagara At Large

As a follow-up to a recent post on NAL involving a disturbing story about a dog in Welland, Ontario  that was impaled by an arrow launched from someone’s bow, Niagara Regional Police announced this September 13^th that they made an arrest that case.

Tara, before the arrow was surgically removed. Photo courtesy of Welland & District Humane Society

Police arrested a 13-year-old Welland boy and charged him with one count of posession of a weapon for dangerous purposes. The boy was not named because he is considered a minor under the law and police also reported that they did not think the arrow shot that wounded the dog was intentional.

Just the same, one cannot help but wonder if this young boy was using a bow and arrow given to him by parents or other adult parties in his life and if it ever occurred to them to make sure he did not use what is a potentially lethal weapon, after all, in an urban area without proper supervision. Even if all the kid did was fire the arrow into the air, as I remember doing in a country field when I was that age, the arrow has to come down somewhere. And to do it in an urban environment is reckless, to say the least. Continue reading →

Submitted for Public Release by Niagara College

September 17, 2013 – Edward Greenspan, one of the most prominent defense lawyers in Canada, will speak to NC students, staff and the public during a distinguished speaker event at the Welland Campus on September 18th.

One of Canada’s best known lawyers, Edward Greenspan, to speak at Niagara College

The event begins at 7 p.m. in the Applied Health Institute Auditorium,
and Greenspan will speak for 45 minutes before taking questions from the
audience.

A limited number of seats are still available, and can be reserved by
contacting Kathryn Beacham via email at kbeacham@niagaracollege.ca.
Reserved seats will be confirmed by email. Continue reading →

By Doug Draper,  Niagara At Large

Harry Schlange, who is no stranger to Niagara and municipal politics here, has been named as the Region’s new chief administrative officer, replacing recently retired Mike Trojan in that top staff position.

Niagara Regional Headquarters in Thorold, Ontario

Schlange last worked in Niagara a few years back as the CAO for the Town of Fort Erie, before taking the CAO position in 2011 in Loyalist Township, a municipality of about 15,000 with a seven-member council (including the mayor) near Kingston, Ontario.

Niagara Regional Chair made the announcement this September 17, five days after regional council chose him from a large field of candidates at during a closed door session that lasted about two hours. The announcement of the councillors’ decision was delayed in order to inform Schlange that he was chosen and to give him an opportunity to break the news to his current employers. Continue reading →

A Media Release from the Ottawa based citizens group Council of Canadians

(A brief foreword from Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper – NAL posted commentary on this site earlier this year, expressing concerns about plans to pump tar sands crude from Alberta, eastward through pipelines that run through a Great Lakes basin that millions of Canadians and Americans, including hundreds of thousands of residents in our Greater Niagara River, depend on as a source of drinking water and for other purposes.

Should a serious rupture of these lines occur, as they have in other regions on this continent where pipelines have been used to transport this asphalt-like material, it could spell catastrophe in a Great Lakes region that is home to one-fifth of the world’s fresh water. The fact that federal and provincial governments in Canada have gutted legislation and resources for monitoring potential sources of environmental contamination in recent years, and have all but eliminated the need for a full environmental review of projects of this magnitude, do little to assure members of the public that environmental protection will be among the priorities if and when the crude starts flowing through these lines.

It is with all that in mind that NAL is pleased to post the following media release from the Council of Canadians.)

September 16, 2013 – The Council of Canadians is raising concerns about the potential threat that expansion plans for the Alberta Clipper, a pipeline also known as Line 67, would have on the Great Lakes. The expansion project would also destroy wetlands along the route in Saskatchewan and Manitoba and threatens three species at risk in Canada.

Please right click on this image to enlarge it for better viewing purposes. This image accompanied Council of Canadians media release.

On September 9, 2013, the National Energy Board sent a letter to Environment Canada warning that approval of the expansion would result in the permanent loss of wetlands along the pipeline route and that it threatens the Northern Leopard Frog, Barn Swallow and Sprague’s Pipit, three species named under the Species At Risk Act. Continue reading →

“When will they ever learn,” sang the great old American folk singer Pete Singer in one of his classic songs,’ Where Have All The Flowers Gone’.

An American police officer runs to latest mass shooting incident in that gun-happy country.

My answer is they, in America, will never learn, not when it comes to gun violence in their country. As an outsider looking in, I’ve come to the conclusion that this country can and will sustain any amount of gun-related violence, as long as it makes for engaging cable TV and especially so long as it protects it protects its sacred second amendment right to bear arms at whatever bloody cost.

So this brings me to the big news on all of the American cable channels on this September 16^th day – that of the “mass shootings” as America’s President Barack Obama described them at a federal naval facility in Washington, D.C. The cable channels in the U.S. ran on about this non-stop since the first word of the shootings got out around 9 a.m. and continued for hours to call it “Breaking News.”

At the risk of sounding a bit callous for those and their families who have died in this latest American gun massacre – at least 13 dead as I bang out this and many others injured – this is not “breaking news” in America any more. It is old news, and it seems like it is getting to the point where the bang-bang-bang of the semi-assault weapons the wackos in that country carry into these scenes of carnage have become nothing more than background noise. Continue reading →

A Submission from Erie County, New York and Niagara Region, Ontario

(A short front note from Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper– The growing interest in this binational environmental conference, organized by county and regional governments on both sides of the Niagara River border, is great news. Is it possible that environmental conferences are finally regaining broader interest after a couple of  decades of environmental issues falling to the wayside and not getting the attention they deserve? As a veteran environment reporter going back to the days of the Love Canal disaster in this region of the world, I pay tribute to Thomas Hersay, Deputy Commisioner of the Erie County, New York Department of Environment & Planning and Patrick Robson on the Ontario side and Commissioner of Integrated Community Planning for the Niagara Region, for their efforts in pulling this greater Niagara regional forum together.)

BUFFALO, NY — People from around the world will convene in Buffalo next month for what was expected to be a modest bi-national environmental conference for local governments in Western New York and Southern Ontario.  Organizers were shocked, however, when inquiries began pouring in from Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australia.

Patrick Robson, a commissioner for Niagara, Ontario’s regional government, helped put together this binational conference on the grounds that environmental challenges transgress national boundaries.

“The global attention we’ve received was completely unexpected, although certainly well deserved,” said Thomas R. Hersey, Jr., conference organizer and Deputy Commissioner of the Erie County Department of Environment & Planning.  “The quality of environmental management programs advanced by governments, non-profits, and private enterprise across New York and Ontario is exceptional, and we’re honored that the world is turning to us for insight and guidance.”

For nearly a year, Hersey and others from the Erie County Department of Environment & Planning and the Niagara Region Integrated Community Planning Department have been planning the 2013 Conference on the Environment: A Bi-National Sustainability Summit.  The conference, which takes place October 3-5 at the Adam’s Mark Hotel in Buffalo, is designed to appeal to a diverse audience of environmental professionals, officials, and members of the public, and will feature over 30 presentations by leading environmental experts from the U.S. and Canada. Continue reading →

By Doug Draper, Niagara At Large

A film reviewer for the great alternative media voice, called ARTVOICE in Buffalo, New York, recently wrote that Blackfish – a documentary film that takes an uncompromising look at the lives of whales performing at amusement parks that go out of their way, as the film reviewer says, brand themselves as “family friendly – is “seriously inappropriate” viewing for children.

An image from the film Blackfish

Although I have only seen a few graphic outtakes and read a number of write-ups on the this film, and have not yet sat through the entire film as the ARTVOICE reviewer has, I am tempted to take issue with any idea that the film ought not to be viewed by children. After all, more than a few elementary school teachers, with the apparent blessing of the school boards that employ them, have taken their classes on day trips to marine mammal parks like Sea World and, closer to home, Marineland in Niagara Falls, on the grounds that it is an “education experience” for the young ones.

Well if that is true, then why not offer these same children a more well rounded education by exposing them to a viewing (perhaps it should even be mandatory viewing in our schools) of this critically acclaimed film? After all, they are probably going off in a dark corner, when their dopey parents are more pre-occupied with other matters revolving around careerism and binging consumerism than they are around the obscene crud their kids are watching online or on some cable programs. So why not watch a film that includes some images of captive whales in a marine mammal park quite literally chewing up some of what might be, more politely called, their guardians. Should that not be part of the educational experience as well? Continue reading →

A Commentary by Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper

Once upon only six or more years ago, there were Fort Erie, Ontario citizens like Sue Salzer, along with Port Colborne allies like Pat Scholfield, who knew that the amalgamated Niagara Health System – the hospital board for this region amalgamated under the former Ontario Tory Harris/Hudak government – were getting ready to concentrate most of the acute care health services in the region in one new hospital site.

Interim Niagara Health System CEO Sue Matthews trumpets palliative care services at former hospital in Fort Erie, Ontario.

That is why they, along with more than 100 brave doctors and numerous equally brave nurses across Niagara, spoke out against the Niagara Health System’s consolidation plans. Many of them argued that if there was to be only one new mega-hospital for Niagara’s future, it should be located at a more central location in the region, and not in the crazy north Niagara place it is now in west St. Catharines.

But it is there now, thanks to former NHS CEO Debbie Sevenpifer and all of her enablers on her handpicked hospital board, media whores at the St. Catharines Standard and others. And that also means thanks to all of those good citizens – including citizens in the central and south ends of Niagara who, for one reason or another, weren’t paying attention to what Sevenpifer and company were doing six or seven years ago – and there is nothing we can do about it.

So here we are. The former Douglas Memorial Hospital in St. Catharines is now a “centre of excellence” or whatever they want to call it for palliative care, and there may still be the “urgent care centre” that replaced the emergency room there, and so on. Continue reading →

A Submission To NAL from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives

(A Brief Note from Niagara At Large – This is important stuff for our children’s future. Niagara At Large will be posting more on this and other examples of “generational theft” when it comes to the children of Canada and America later.)

OTTAWA—Average tuition and compulsory fees for Canadian undergraduate students are estimated to rise almost 18% over the next four years, from almost $6,200 in 2011-12 to over $7,300, says a study released today by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA).

The study looks at trends in tuition and compulsory fees in Canada since 1990, projects fees for each province for the next four years, and examines the impact on affordability for median- and low-income families using a Cost of Learning Index.

“Since 1990, with very few exceptions, the tuition fee burden across the country has been increasing faster than incomes. Between 1990 and 2011 the average annual increase in tuition fees and ancillary fees in Canada was 6.2%—nearly three times greater than the rate of inflation,” says Erika Shaker, co-author of the study and director of the CCPA’s education project. Continue reading →

NAL new ceo region,

By Doug Draper

Niagara, Ontario’s regional council has finally chosen an individual to occupy the top municipal staff post in the region, but we probably won’t be told who that individual is until the week of September 16^th – unless, of course, someone on the council leaks the name of the individual out.

Niagara, Ontario’s regional headquarters.

The council met in closed session for about two hours this September 12^th to choose a new chief administrative officer from a list that, at one point this summer, included as many as 126 names.

“It was a full house (meaning all 31 regional councillors were in attendance) and we had a good debate,” said Niagara Regional Chair Gary Burroughs following a closed meeting that final y found a replacement for Mike Trojan, who served as the Region’s CAO for 13 years and held other key positions for the regional government for 14 years before that. Continue reading →

A Note from Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper

“What’s The Use Of Being A Writer If You Can’t Irritate A Great Many People” – the late Pulitzer Prize winning writer Norman Mailer

In the next day or two ahead, Niagara At Large will be filling our supporters and others in on how we plan to keep this site alive as an independent news and commentary voice for the Greater Niagara Region.

We also plan to add more clarity to the mission statement this online site tried to describe when it entered the internet world three years ago. We will make it clearer than ever, if we have to (and we appear to for some), that this site does not have a “political” or “partisan bias”. It is here for building communities for the betterment of us all. Those who can’t or won’t accept them are free to take a walk to other news venues that support their ideologically warped points of view.

So stay tune. See you tomorrow – maybe!

By Liz Smith – The Brock Press

(Niagara At Large is pleased to post this piece by Liz Smith, a reporter for The Brock Press, the student newspaper for Brock University in Niagara, Ontario. The Brock Press, in our view, does a better job of covering issues of interest and concern to younger people than corporate-run mainstream  newspapers across this region. We thank Tim Stacey, Brock Press’s chief editor, and Liz Smith for allowing Niagara At Large to post this piece and we will leave you with a link to read more on The Brock Press below.)

Advocates for animals line the main street in front of Marineland’s sprawling amusement park in Niagara Falls, Ontario.

Remember Marineland? That place [in Niagara Falls, Ontario that] your family took you to when you were a kid with the catchy, can’t-get-out-of-your-head jingle (“Everyone looooooves Marineland!”), a proximate location that Canada’s Wonderland couldn’t compete with and oh yes, a captive terrain for a range of wild animals for patrons to awe over. Well in case you haven’t heard (or have been fed the propagandist-spin from our corporatized local media), there are some pretty significant developments around the park lately that ought to spark debate around a multitude of serious issues. Continue reading →

A Commentary by Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper

When Kathleen Wynne was sworn in as the 25^th premier of Ontario this past winter, one of the first things I recall her saying on an open-line CBC radio program was that the Liberal government she had served as a cabinet minister in and taken over from her predecessor, Dalton McGuinty, had not done enough on environmental protection.

The Fowler’s toad, a species at risk along the shores of Lake Erie, never seems to be much of a species at risk when a big developer wants to build a condo or some other structure along the shoreline. That is when Ontario’s Ministry Of Natural Resources say – go ahead and build. … it is okay. Many Fort Erie residents have learned that lesson the hard way.

As a long-time environmental reporter going back to the late 1970s and 1980s when toxic chemicals poisoning our Great Lakes was a major issue, I was pleased to hear this because I never had the impression that protecting and preserving Ontario’s natural heritage – a heritage, the quality of which, very much impacts on the lives of our Buffalo area and other American neighbor, by the way – was more than a pin prick in McGuinty’s agenda. Wynne, at least, always showed an interest in environmental issues and certainly one of the first things she should do is reverse the gutting, by the former McGuinty Liberal government, of the province’s endangered species legislation. Continue reading →

By Mark Taliano

The U.S. Pentagon’s most recent best friend forever just identified itself, and it happens to be al Qaeda.

One of many Canadians who protested recently in front of a U.S. embassy office in Toronto

It turns out that Canada, too, has been supporting Al Qaeda by sending money for propaganda promotion, one of Harper’s specialties.  The pro-war government of Stephen Harper has so far given $5.3 million to the Al Qaeda rebels for such purposes.

Despite the identity of this new “friend” that is being financed by the U.S, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Turkey– to murder people in Syria, the drums of war continue to beat.

Fewer than 10% of American citizens support an invasion of Syria …. But the drums beat, as if by themselves.

Nobel Peace Laureate Maudie Maguire describes the Syrian tragedy in these words: Continue reading →

A Submission from the City of Port Colborne in Niagara, Ontario

The City of Port Colborne has begun two major community economic development projects through the Economic Development, Tourism & Marketing Department. The Business Retention and Expansion (BR+E) project, is designed to stimulate economic development and growth by assisting existing businesses. This project will also be done alongside a Skills Inventory project that will survey residents and high school students across Port Colborne.

Port Colborne Mayor Vance Badawey

“These projects play an important part in the City’s priority of business expansion and retention while looking for ways to connect our residents to good jobs in Port Colborne,” said Mayor Vance Badawey. “By getting out into the businesses and manufacturers across our City and hearing the actual needs and concerns of business owners in Port Colborne, we can better understand what we need to do to make this an even better place to do business.”

“Helping our existing businesses is the primary objective of the project. Many of Ontario’s most successful communities have had very good results with BR+E and Skills Inventory projects,” said Stephen Thompson, General Manager & Director of Economic Development, Tourism & Marketing with the City of Port Colborne. “Before considering these projects, we talked to community leaders in several other areas that have used a similar approach to communicating with residents and businesses in their communities. They were very positive about the results.” Continue reading →

A Message from Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper

To echo the words of the late Gerry Garcia;’ What a long, strange trip it’s been.’

As Bob Dylan once sang; ‘Ah but I was so much older then, I’m younger than that now.’ A young and naive Doug Draper at a desk at the St. Catharines Standard – an environment reporter at the time still stupid enough to believe that daily newspapers like this one would – free and independent – might last forever. Boy, was I ever wrong.

It was 15 years ago this August that I left the newsroom at the St. Catharines Standard for the last time. I made my departure almost 19 years to the day that I began my first job as a reporter there – a job I once loved so much that for many of those years, I spent more of my waking hours buzzing back and forth between that newsroom and stories I covered than I did at home with my wife and family.

I was one of the last of many reporters, editors and photographers from The Standard, when it was still owned by the local Burgoyne family and before it fell into the clutches of Lord Conrad Black and his corporate chain machine, to leave the paper (in my case, I took a voluntary buyout following an ugly, three-week strike in the spring of 1998. Continue reading →

Submitted To Niagara At Large by Gracia Janes, St. Catharines & District Council of Women.

Join us on Thursday September 12^th at  8 p.m. at the St. Catharines Centennial Library,  54 Church Street, in downtown St. Catharines, Ontario  for a free public forum on the problem of child poverty in Niagara, Ontario.

A portrait of child poverty somewhere in a Canada that can well afford to address this terrible problem

Child Poverty !    Why are so many children living in poverty? What are the consequences? How does it feel to be a child living in poverty? What are the benefits of eliminating child poverty? Why not ACT NOW.

These are some of the very difficult and pressing questions  that will be tackled  by lead speaker Anita Khanna,of the child -poverty elimination  group Campaign 2000, and response panelists   Mary Beth Anger, a Welland community activist,  Chonie Anger, teen speaker for the Niagara Poverty Reduction Network, and    Marc Todd of Niagara Community Services . Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

Tara was lucky.

An arrow pierced through the back of Tara, a dog in Welland targeted by a yet to be apprehended animal abuser. Photo courtesy of Welland & District Humane Society

When the arrow struck her from the bow of some sicko who fired it at this beautiful black lab/boxer mix of a dog, it pinned her to the ground before she managed to get up and limp back to her owners in Welland, Ontario.

It is the second time this summer that someone using arrows (the first incident involved a person or persons using a cross bow a and shooting at a cat in neighboring Harold, Ontario) has reportedly committed an act of cruelty – an act that falls under the criminal code – in the region of Niagara, Ontario. And I say reportedly because who knows how many more times these depraved acts have been committed on animals without any reporting of them? Continue reading →

The Austerity Brothers – Who Is Canada’s Meanest Politician?

By Nick Fillmore

(A Brief Note from NAL publisher Doug Draper – Before Niagara At Large was so rudely interrupted this July by flooding rains that knocked out our basement offices for the better part of two months, I was pleased to hear from long-time journalist colleage Nick Fillmore.

A veteran Canadian journalist who worked for CBC, This Magazine and the not-for-profit Canadian Association of Journalists, an organization dedicated to fighting against enormous odds to keep fearless news coverage and commentary alive in this country, Nick fortunately found his way through cyberspace to this independent news and commentary site and offered to share with Niagara At Large some of the commentary he writes for his own online site ‘A Different Point Of View …’ which offers up a provocative gathering of thoughtful opinions on so many of the issues challenging us today, and which we will provide a link to at the end of this, his latest contribution to NAL, which begins now.)

The ‘austerity brothers’, Canada’s finance minister Jim Flaherty and Prime Minister Stephen Harper. It means more bags of gold for the upper one per cent and austerity for most of the rest of us.

Who is the meanest politician of them all, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper or Finance Minister Jim Flaherty?

It must be Harper because he has proudly given billions-of-dollars to corporations and the 1 per cent while there has been an increase of 31 per cent of Canadians using food banks since he came to power.

On the other hand, it could be Flaherty. He is removing a staggering $10-billion a year from government revenues so the Conservatives don’t have the money to help look after the chronically poor, the working poor, and those with mental issues, etc.

Take your pick. Continue reading →

By Alice Jay, from the global media organization Avaaz at Avaaz.org

Dear friends

Just weeks ago the kids in this image were gassed to death in their sleep, but it feels the world has forgotten them and got stuck in a debate between US strikes or doing nothing. Now there is a glimmer of hope for a peaceful way to stop these massacres.

Syrian citizens dead or dying from recent nerve gas attack

Syria’s bloody war has been fuelled by rivalry between Iran, Assad’s main backer, and the US and their allies. But this vile chemical attack has changed their discourse: Iran’s new moderate president condemned the gassing and Obama signalled he’d work with “anybody” to resolve the conflict. Let’s urgently call on both leaders to sit down to talks and bring the warring parties together before any more lives are lost. Continue reading →

A Submission from the citizen activist group Hamilton Coalition To Stop The War

(NAL is officially re-launching this site today, this September 9th,  and apologizes for not getting this September 9^th event posted earlier. Hopefully it is not too late for some of you out there who may wish to attend. Whether you agree on a military attack on Syria or not, this may go down in history as a milestone moment for our present and future. Follow it closely!)

Barack Obama is leading the world down the warpath vs. Syria;

-on the flimsiest pretext: weapons of mass destruction;

– before the investigative results are in;

-without the approval of the United Nations Security Council,

-under the guise of a “humanitarian intervention”;

-which might lead to a global conflict: the US vs Russia and China.

Stephen Harper currently says Canada has no plans to participate in the US-led attack on Syria. But he has lied to us before: four times, in fact, he promised there would be no extension of the war in Afghanistan. Now, he is even refusing to recall Parliament to debate the Syrian crisis. Continue reading →

By Doug Draper 

A court order restricting what demonstrators can do and say in front of Marineland did not stop about 50 individuals from demonstrating in front of the sprawling Niagara Falls, Ontario amusement park this Labour Day.

A recent court order awaded to Marineland did not stop animal activists from demonstrating in front of the Niagara Falls park this Labour Day.

Dylan Powell, head of the Niagara, Ontario-based activist group Marineland Animal Defense, told Niagara At Large at the rally site that 50 was the number he expected to show up at what has long become an annual demonstration along the main road in front of Marineland. He called the event a “dress rehearsal” for what he is confident will be a much larger demonstration involving several hundred animal activists from in and outside the Niagara region on Marineland’s closing day this coming October 13^th. Continue reading →

Some Niagara Residents Go Out Of Their Way To Say ‘No’ To Bombing Syria

A Niagara At Large News Brief by Doug Draper

A small but determined group of Niagara, Ontario residents took to the sidewalks in front of a Canadian cabinet minister’s Niagara Falls constituency office this August 31^st to say ‘no’ to a possible U.S.-led bombing of military-related targets in Syria.

Niagara, Ontario residents express their views on a military assault on Syria in front of Niagara Falls MP and Canadian Defense Minister Rob Nicholson’s constituency office.

The Niagara residents picketing in front of the office of Niagara Falls MP Rob Nicholson, who was appointed by his Conservative government this summer to serve as Canada’s minister of defense, was one of many such demonstrations held in front of federal politicians’ offices across the country in recent days.

Of course, Nicholson was nowhere to be seen which is almost always the way with demonstrations in front of a constituency office of any MP or MPP, regardless of their political stripes, when it comes to a heated issue.

And indeed, by the time you read this post, the bombing may already have started. Or maybe not. Since this August 29, when U.S. President Barack Obama and his secretary of state John Kerry, sent out strong signals that a military spanking was in order for the recent horrific nerve gas assault by the Syrian Assad regime on thousands of its own citizens, a number of governments in Great Britain, France and elsewhere and a number of people, including many in the United States, have expressed opposition to military action as an answer to Assad’s brutality. Continue reading →

NAL Marineland demo

Annual Labour Day Demonstration To Go Ahead In Front Of Marineland Despite Court Actions

A Message from Marineland Animal Defense

(Niagara At Large is posting the following message from the Niagara, Ontario-based citizen activist group Marineland Animal Defense or M.A.D., for short, to supporters of its campaign to end the keeping of whales and other mammals at Marineland’s Niagara Falls amusement park.)

Hey all,

Activists demonstrate in front of Marineland in summer of 2012. File photo by Doug Draper

We have two demonstrations fast upon us.

First off, we return to site tomorrow with our first announced demonstration since the Judge Lococo ruling. It’s a bit of an annual tradition to demonstrate outside the park on Labour Day and we will be out from 12-3pm tomorrow providing that alternative message and raising awareness. If you can spare some time – please join us. For folks confused or afraid about demonstrating on site after the court order was handed down please read our FAQ’s and know that our marshals are there to help make a safe, legal and peaceful demonstration for everyone. Continue reading →

A Commentary by Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper

As busy as I am preparing for a re-launch of Niagara At Large on September 9^th, I cannot let the 50^th anniversary of one momentous event pass without comment.

Martin Luther King at the March on Washington, August, 1963

On August 28^th, 1963, American civil rights leader Martin Luther King stood on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. and delivered one of the most stirring and history changing speeches of the last hundred years.

Before more than a quarter of a million people – black, brown and white, of all religious and non-religious persuasions – who had gathered around a reflective pond that stretched all the way back to the Washington Monument where the White House was just a short walk away, King let loose with one of the greatest of all the great speeches he delivered during a civil rights crusade that ended for him when he was assassinated in the spring of 1968. Continue reading →

By Doug Draper

Anyone with a heart for innocent beings would have to view it as act that was despicable and disturbing.

Cinamon, recovering in a St. Catharines animal hospital. Photo courtesy of the Lincoln County Humane Society

Despicable that someone would shoot a defenseless cat with arrows from a crossbow four times. And disturbing to think that whatever sick person or persons committed this depraved act is still at large and may very well focus their madness on another cat or dog or a person next time.

“I am very disturbed by this,” Kevin Strooband, executive director of the Niagara, Ontario-based Lincoln County Humane Society said during a call Niagara At Large made to him this August 27. “There is no excuse for shooting an animal of this nature and to shoot her four times? You have to have a pretty twisted mind.” Continue reading →

From NAL publisher Doug Draper

Due to a severe flooding storm that has done costly damage to our home base, Niagara At Large will not be in a position to officially re-launch this independent news and commentary site for our greater Niagara region until September 9^th.

One of more than three weeks of garbage pickups in front of our homebase in Thorold, Ontario. More than 200 plastic bags of destroyed possessions and counting.

In the meantime, we will continue to post appropriately signed comments from readers to posts on the site and will, from time to time, include a piece on issues we believe to be of interest and concern to the public at large.

I also wish to stress this again to so many of you out there who understand the value and the need for strong and independent news organizations that strive to be watchdogs for us in a free and democratic society. Many of us know that this greater Niagara region is a great and promising place to live, and we also know it continues to face many challenges economically and from the standpoint of the services needed to fulfill a goal we can all achieve together – of being a leading model around the world for healthy, livable communities. Continue reading →

A Message to Niagara At Large readers from Ontario Environment Minister and St. Catharines MPP Jim Bradley

(A brief foreward from  NAL publisher Doug Draper – For people like me who have been following environmental issues for many years, this message from Jim Bradley may hardly begin to answer the need for governments at all levels, and the communities of people they represent to take the human causes of climate change seriously enough to move foreward with real action.

Ontario Environment Minister and St. Catharines MPP Jim Bradley talks climate change.

But let’s give Jim Bradley credit for this. No other Ontario environment minister before him has gone this far in accepting climate change and our collective complicity in fueling the devastating weather-related events that arise from it as a fact. And we have yet to see any sincere effort to address this issue at the federal government level. 

So should Bradley and his government be doing more? Damn right they should. And it is up to the rest of us to put more pressure on Bradley and his government, and on governments across this country to do more. As Bradley says in the final line of his message, we have to tackle this – what many scientists are now saying is the most serious environmental threat we face in the 21^st century – together.)

Here in Ontario, we know that climate change is a significant issue. We vividly remember the recent flood in Toronto and watched in sympathy as our friends in Calgary suffered from a devastating flood. It’s clear that weather patterns are changing and that storms are getting stronger and more frequent. Continue reading →

A Brief Commentary by Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper

(Yes, I know I keep reminding you. Niagara At Large will not be officially re-launched until this September 9^th due to serious flooding this summer at our home base. But it is hard not pull myself away from the cleanup and  wade in on the odd issue, including this one. And I do so here with apologies to pigs of the four-legged kind.)

The premier for Saskatchewan where disgraced Canadian senator Pamela Wallin apparently still has a home for the purposes of claiming travel expenses to and from Ottawa has it right.

Canada’s senate doing what it does best. Feeding from the public trough.

Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall, a Conservative Party affiliate just as Wallin is and was when Prime Minister Stephen Harger appointed her to the senate in 2009, recently said he has traded his view in that Canada’s senate should be reformed for a firm belief that it should be abolished.

And Wall is right. This costly, unaccountable body of appointed political hacks and relic from a post-medieval  past serves no valuable purpose in a 21^st century democracy. A “house of sober second thought,” as some like to call it. I defy anyone out there to name even half a dozen thoughts this pompous body of political has-beens has advanced in the last year that might improve the lives of this country and its people. Continue reading →

A Commentary by Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper

It is three in the morning of August 8^th, almost three weeks ago to the night when violent torrents of rain flooded basements in Niagara, Ontario communities like Niagara Falls, St. Catharines and mine in Thorold.

And I can’t sleep. Call it shell shock or my case of post traumatic stress disorder or whatever you want, but when you turn on the weather channel and are told that there is a possibility of more “severe weather” coming our way, there is no way I can sleep. I am up, moving whatever survived from the July flood to higher ground and watching for a backup of waste water in the drains in my basement.

You may wonder if I am not being a little too worried, but when you also hear reports of at least three tornadoes this Wednesday, August 7^th in regions east of Lake Huron and north of Lake Ontario, and when you have the skies flashing with lightning  as I write this, I would suggest that you can’t be too complacent about the possibilities for more damage to the homestead these days. Continue reading →

A Few Brief Thoughts from Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper

I know I have said that Niagara At Large will not be re-launching until the first week of September while some serious damage from this July’s flooding rains is cleaned up at our home base, but I can’t not post something on this sad news.

One of Canada’s most passionate advocates for heritage preservation and one of the country’s greatest restoration architects, Peter Stokes

Peter Stokes, renown for his work as a restoration architect across Canada and a longtime resident of Niagara-on-the-Lake, has passed away.

A truly passionate and fearless advocate for protecting and preserving heritage buildings and related properties in this region, province and country, Peter Stokes never let any level of government or any developer shut him up if he felt there was a danger that a valuable part of a community’s history might be bulldozed down for some soulless substitute of a building.

I first had the honour of meeting this great and humble pillor of integrity in 1979 when, as a reporter fresh out of journalism school and working for the once great St. Catharines Standard, he had the courage to question plans to build an extension to the historic Prince of Wales Hotel along Queen Street in Niagara-on-the-Lake. He called the designs for the extension “fake” and “Disneyesque,” as they attempted to replicate – not too successfully, in his view a building design from a century earlier. He argued that it would be better to find a modern building design that was “sympathetic” to the historic hotel. Continue reading →

A Comment by Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper

The late American satirist/comedian Lenny Bruce once warned that it is not a good idea to “get fresh with the telephone company” because if you do “they’ll leave you with a couple of cans and a string.”

Imagine waking up in the middle of the night to an old Bell image like this? Especially if you have to pay your bill. Screw Bell if it continues to outsource jobs to sweatshops overseas.

That was back in the days – some half five or so decades ago – when the Bell telephone company held us all in a vice grip if we wanted to own or use a phone, and was a virtual monopoly across North America. It was also a time when we in Canada embraced Alexander Graham Bell, who spent some years of his life living in a place near Niagara, Ontario and was allegedly was the founder of the telephone while in this country.

Whatever the case for Bell and his consummating his phone invention here as opposed to the U.S., where he also migrated from his native Scotland, Bell, I remember growing up in the 1960s and on with a Bell Canada telephone company that had never shrieked away from capitalizing on Bell’s invention in Canada. It was always part of the mythology when my parents and all of their friends and neighbours across the country got their bills from Bell, which was a virtual monopoly back then and isn’t far away from that today, thanks to successive federal governments that give telecommunications corporations, in particular, a license to plunder Canadian consumers without a chance for competition from the U.S. or elsewhere. Continue reading →

From NAL publisher Doug Draper

Before the flood, if I may cop the title of a wonderful old album featuring Bob Dylan and The Band, Niagara At Large was working to reach higher plateaus as an independent, alternative news and commentary voice in the Greater Niagara Region – a region that embraces residents in Niagara, Ontario and our friends and neighbours in Buffalo and the rest of Erie and Niagara counties, New York.

Wish I was back here, in front of the Cape Cod home of the late writer Norman Mailer, instead of doing cleanup in a flooded basement. Not the most flattering photo of yours truly and yes, I know I need to lose weight. I’ll do that while we get Niagara At Large back in service.

Things were progressing and I was feeling optimistic about reaching those plateaus in the days leading up to a violent storm on Friday, July 19 that washed damaging flood waters in to the home where my family lives and the spaces where NAL had its computers and other resources for producing this site. Unfortunately, it will take at least two more weeks to clean up the mess and a couple more to recover and get back on track.

Therefore, Niagara At Large will not be re-launching this site (we deliberately avoid using the baggage-laden word blog) fully until Labour Day, September 2^nd. And when we do, it will be done with a will to reconstitute the original mission of NAL as this region’s most engaging forum for analysis and alternative views on the issues that matter to people in our binational region and countries, and as a virtual town hall for a civil discussion of those issues. Continue reading →

A Note from Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper

Due to flooding rains this late July, Niagara At Large office space and computer hardware have been swamped with water. It may therefore take three or four weeks until this site is back on line.

Thank you for any patience our many loyal readers may share with us during this difficult period.

Just a final word to say that Sun Media, the owner of the three daily newspapers in Niagara, Ontario has made more crippling cuts to its newsroom resources at the St. Catharines Standard. That newspaper has virtually been stripped of resources beyond any that would allow it to do a decent job of covering much more than crime and traffic accident stories in this region – so tragic for what was once one of the great local community papers in the province and country.

All the more reason why the rest of us have to work together to build new media for news and commentary in our greater Niagara region. Only we can do it!!!

A News Commentary by Doug Draper

The late Richard Nixon, the only president of the United States who resigned from that most lofty office in disgrace following the Watergate scandals of the early 1970s, became infamous for having an “enemies list.” It was a list Nixon put together of people who dared to openly criticize\ his policies and it was used to spy on these people and commit other abuses of power that ultimately led to his  demise.

 Now we find out, thanks to information leaked to mainstream news outlets like The Globe and Mail and CBC that Canada’s prime minister, Stephen Harper, is building his own lists of “enemy stakeholders” and is instructing his recently-sworn-in members of cabinet to do the same. The purpose of these lists, at least on the surface, according to the memo Harper sent out to his ministers and their staff, is to accumulate an inventory of individuals and groups across Canada his government may choose “to engage or avoid” in advancing its agenda.

 So this is where we’re now at my fellow Canadians – in a country that, up to recently, has had a pretty good record of respecting and taking into consideration the views of any and all citizens, including expert staff within our government ministries, who care to share their views in the course of deciding how best we should address the many challenging issues that face our country today. Continue reading →

By Nick Fillmore

(A Brief Note from Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper – Once again, NAL is pleased to welcome Nick Fillmore as a contributor to this site. Nick is a veteran Canadian journalists with distinguished careers at CBC and other national news venues. He was also a mentor to many like me as I was finding my way as a journalist a number of years ago. After you read this post, I encourage you to visit Nick’s news and commentary site at nickfillmore.blogspot.com .)

A travelling tribute  to the men and women who lost their lives in Afghanistan will arrive in your province or territory at some point during the next year or two. The memorial, featuring plaques of the 161 Canadians killed, will be welcomed by their families and friends, but some of us will react much differently.

Now former Harper National Defense Minister Peter MacKay visits memorial to Canadian dead during Afghan war earlier this July

Former Minister of National Defence Minister Peter MacKay  unveiled the temporary display in Ottawa on July 9^th.  It will be open to the public and remain on Parliament Hill through Remembrance Day, before heading off on a two-year journey across the country to visit provincial legislatures and then on to Washington.

The memorial appears to be straight-forward but, in reality, it carries with it a heavy dose of hypocrisy regarding the Conservatives’ real objective of the tour and their treatment of military veterans. Continue reading →

By Mark Taliano 

Canada’s headlong rush to the extreme right of the political spectrum is multi-causal. 

While the economic theory of neoliberalism/neoconservatism has been transferring wealth and power upwards in Canada (and throughout much of the world) for over 30 years now, Canada’s current acceleration towards a dystopian cliff can be partly explained by religion.  

Canada’s current embrace of Republican-style politics and economic theory has thrust us into the arms of Christian Fundamentalism, which has a strong political constituency in the United States’ Republican party, and now, in the Conservative Party of Canada (CPC).  Continue reading →

A Submission from the office of health critic for the Ontario New Democratic Party, France Gelinas

(A brief foreword from Niagara At Large – We are losing count at NAL of how many times Ontario’s Ombudman Andre Marin, an independent watchdog for the province’s taxpayers, has urged the government to give his office some powers to look into the affairs of hospital and health boards, schools, universities and municipalities.

Ontario Ombudsman Andre Marin

In the case of hospitals alone, Niagara, Ontario residents may have had this watchdog office look into the affairs of the former Niagara Health System CEO Debbie Sevenpifer and her wrecking crew of a board, had the ombudsman the legal powers to do so before decisions were made to build a major new hospital for Niagara in the north end of the region, in west St. Catharines, and shut down services in other Niagara hospitals.

So this is no small issue and it is high time that Ontario’s premier Kathleen Wynne does what her predecessor Dalton McGuinty failed or refused to do and give the Ombudsman’s office these powers. You should contact your MPP and urge them to make sure this is done.)

Sudbury, Ontario – NDP MPP France Gélinas renewed New Democrats call for Ombudsman oversight after Andre Marin once again sounded alarm bells about his lack of power to respond to thousands of citizen complaints about hospitals, schools, universities and municipalities. Continue reading →

A Notice from Fiona McMurran

 For the information of Niagara At Large readers who live in the region, I’d like to pass on the following message I received this July 5 from Welland Riding MP Malcolm Allen as a follow-up to the meeting he convened in February on the cancellation of VIA services to Niagara.

“It has come to our attention that VIA Rail management has been invited to the Niagara Region to discuss the “business decision behind the recent changes in service delivery in South-Western Ontario,” said Allen’s message. “In the past you have expressed an interest in the VIA Rail issue and the reinstatement of service to the Niagara Region. We felt it pertinent to inform you of this meeting and apprise you of the opportunity to continue to express the need for there to be reliable, effective train service to the Niagara Region. Continue reading →

 A Message from Hans Voss, Executive Director of the non-profit, advocacy group Michigan Land Use Institute

(A Brief Foreword by Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper – A growing number of advocacy groups throughout the Great Lakes region are raising concerns about a plan by the petroleum corporation Enbridge to pipe tar sands material from Albert through the Great Lakes region to a destination in the northeastern United States. And there should be little wonder why.

Enbridge hardly has a sterling record when it comes to maintenance and preventing leaks from its pipelines and it is now talking about piping a crude oil product through a Great Lakes region – check out the map of the pipeline route below – that hosts one fifth of the world’s fresh water for tens of millions of citizens on both sides of the border and a fishery worth billions of dollars. A serious leak of petroleum-based material into these waters could be catastrophic, not only for towns and cities around the lakes, but for communities downstream along the St. Lawrence River.

So now the Michigan Land Use Institute is joinng the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment, Greenpeace Canada, Toronto-based Environmental Defense, Ontario’s New Democratic Party and others in demanding that federal, provincial and state governments to reconsider this plan. Please read the following message from Michigan Land Use Insistute director  Hans Vass and consider getting engaged, if you are not already, in this important issue.)

Greetings!

Michigan Land Use Institute director Hans Vass

MLUI has hopped into the middle of a what I think is one of the most pressing, if not the most pressing, issues confronting the future of the Great Lakes: the risk posed by 60-year-old oil pipelines submerged beneath the Straits of Mackinac. Now the company that owns them may increase the pipelines’ capacity, potentially carrying dangerous tar sands oil from Canada.

While MLUI already has a lot going on toward advancing our goals on clean energy, food and farming, and smart growth, we felt like we had a real obligation to get involved.

So we partnered with an active group of northwest Michigan citizens to organize a big rally on Sunday July 14 at noon at the Mackinac Bridge to raise awareness about the risk to the Great Lakes and start a major citizen campaign to call upon leaders to reduce the risk of a pipeline break.

If you are motivated to get involved, you can help in a number of ways.     

• Join us on Sunday.
• Sign this online petition.
• Or, you can consider helping out financially.

We have no budget for this work. With the rally coming up this weekend, and as we look out over the remainder of the year, it is clear that in order to make a difference we need to raise considerable funds.

The pipeling route, including the Line 9 section in Ontario, running through the Great Lakes region to the shores of Maine

We are encouraging people to donate to this event by going online at www.mlui.org/donate, making a contribution that suits you, and marking “Rally” in the notes field. It’s that simple. And then, we’re off–to the rally on Sunday, to the media who cover it, and to the world of people who care about this precious, and globally unique water resource.

Thanks a lot for your consideration of this special opportunity!

~Hans Voss, Executive Director

The Michigan Land Use Institute is a nonprofit advocacy organization that protects the environment, strengthens the economy, and builds community. The organization collaborates with citizens, government, businesses, and organizations to innovate models for resilience and prosperity. Learn more about this organization by clicking on http://www.mlui.org/ .

(Niagara At Large invites you to join in the conversation by sharing your views on the content of this post below. For reasons of transparency and promoting civil dialogue, NAL only posts comments from individuals who share their first and last name with their views.)

An Address to the United Nations by Malala Yousafzai

”Dear brothers and sisters, we want schools and education for every child’s bright future. We will continue our journey to our destination of peace and education. No one can stop us. We will speak up for our rights and we will bring change to our voice. We believe in the power and the strength of our words. Our words can change the whole world because we are all together, united for the cause of education. And if we want to achieve our goal, then let us empower ourselves with the weapon of knowledge and let us shield ourselves with unity and togetherness.”

Malala

(A Brief Foreword by Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper – With those words and many stirring others Malala Yousafzai, a Pakistani teenager who was shot through the head by religious extremists last year for simply wanting to go to school, this young women told the world through the United Nations assembly in New York City this July 12 that there must be a better way for some half the world’s population –many or most of them women who seem to be the targets of religious extremists, not only in other regions of the world like Pakistan, but here in North America.

I know that this is not a local story in the mainstream media sense, but this courageous young woman is speaking to the humanity in all of us, and her address on this July 12 to the United Nations may be as important as any civil right addresses delivered by others like Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela. So please read this speech and share your views at the end of it.)

Malala Yousafzai’s Address To The United Nations, July 12, 2013

Honourable UN Secretary General Mr Ban  Ki-moon, respected president of the General Assembly  Vuk Jeremic,  honourable UN envoy for global education  Mr Gordon Brown, respected elders and my dear brothers and sisters: Assalamu alaikum. Continue reading →

 A Submission from Niagara’s Regional Government 

(A short foreword by Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper – As someone who has covered news in Niagara, Ontario for more than three decades now I have often found it rather sad and disturbing that few residents of this region seem to take an active interest in the regional government’s budget and how so many Niagara residents’ property tax dollars are spent at that level for such vital services as police, roads, water and wastewater treatment, garbage collection, seniors’ care, public health care, affordable housing, and on and on.

You can find many people demonstrating the interest in the budgets of local municipal governments, and that is good, but you look up in the gallery during a meeting on the regional budget, and you are lucky to find more than three or four residents there.

Given the services regional government is responsible for and the need to control costs around them, that apparent lack of interest has got to change. So please check out the following call for you to participate in a survey and online interactive discussion on its spending, and consider participating in it.

And get involved  because it is good for our collective future. Not because, as mentioned below in the Region’s media release, you might be eligable to win an iPad mini. How sad winning a prize for getting involved in civics even has to enter the picture.) 

NIAGARA REGION, July 11, 2013 – Niagara Region launches a user-friendly, online survey to get residents’ feedback on the proposed 2 per cent increase for the 2014 budget, which would equal approximately $37 for an average home assessed at $231,756.

Niagara, Ontario’s regional headquarters.

Residents are encouraged to visit  www.niagararegion.ca to watch a 60 second video and then respond to a few brief questions about the proposed 2014 budget. Residents can then enter to win an iPad Mini.)”We’ve heard from residents that they want to understand how we are spending their tax dollars and the value they are receiving for each dollar,” said Regional Chair Gary Burroughs. “Since we manage an overall budget of almost $1 billion and provide services that impact residents daily, it is important that our budget process is transparent and that the public is engaged in that process,” concludes Burroughs.

Niagara Region staff will also be in the community collecting feedback. Residents can watch for our booth at community events and locations near them for a chance to fill out the survey and enter the contest in person. For a list of events and locations, visit www.niagararegion.ca.

This is the first step in a series of engagement opportunities that Niagara Region will offer on the 2014 budget. There will be hands-on community feedback sessions that are open to the public in late August along with a series for Budget Review Committee of the Whole meetings which are all open to the public. For a complete list of engagement opportunities, please visit the Region’s website at http://www.niagararegion.ca.

(Niagara At Large invites you to join in the conversation by sharing your views on the content of this post below. For reasons of transparency and promoting civil dialogue, NAL only posts comments from individuals who share their first and last name with their views.)

Submitted by the Ontario Clean Air Alliance

(If we can get past the diehard climate change deniers and flat earth society, Niagara At Large is posting this piece because it appears we need to move foreword and deal with the causes and impacts of severe weather and climate change.)

Watching streets fill with water and the lights blink out across the city, you have to wonder – are we really prepared for the coming climate storm?

Downed Toronto area hydro lines from the Hurricane Sandy storm that swept through much of the northeastern United States and regions in Ontario, Quebec and Atlantic provinces in October, 2012.

More than 170,000 Toronto and Mississauga residents lost power for anything from a few hours to a day or more after Monday night’s torrential downpour. This was largely a result of the province’s continued reliance on a highly centralized electricity system that, for example, routes power from distant nuclear stations into Toronto via just two major connection points. If one of these points goes down – such as the damaged Manby Transformer Station in the city’s west end this week – big areas of the city can quickly find themselves sitting in the dark. Continue reading →

NIAGARA REGION, July 11, 2013 – Robert Mahony is the 2013 recipient of the T. Roy Adams Humanitarian Award for his contribution to improving the lives of others.

Niagara, Ontario’s Regional Chair Gary Burroughs with humanitarian award recipient Robert Mahony (middle) and St. Catharines Regional Councillor Tim Rigby at right.

“The annual T. Roy Adams Humanitarian Award is a wonderful opportunity to recognize true commitment and dedication to volunteerism and humanitarianism in the Niagara region of Ontario.

”Mr. Mahony has made a lasting impact on his community over the years and truly exemplifies the honourable qualities as remembered of the late Roy Adams,” said Regional Chair Gary Burroughs. Continue reading →

News from the City of Port Colborne in Niagara, Ontario

(One of the Greater Niagara Area’s most popular summer events, Canal Days, will take place along the canal and lakeside waters of Port Colborne, Ontario from August 2 through August 5. NAL is pleased to post this on the event and find out more about other activities that will be featured through the four days by clicking on the link at the end of this post.)

Canal Days in Port Colborne. File photo by Doug Draper

Port Colborne, Ontario, July 11, 2013  – Sailing into Port Colborne for the 35^th annual Canal Days Marine Heritage Festival is the Empire Sandy. At 200 feet in length, with 11,000 square feet of sail, the Empire Sandy offers passengers the unique experience of sailing aboard an authentic Tall Ship. Wide expansive decks and spacious wood paneled lounges set the tone for a comfortable yet exhilarating experience.

Festival attendees will have a number of opportunities to sail on the Sandy. On Friday, August 2 enjoy a sunset cruise on Lake Erie. Throughout the weekend, morning and afternoon cruises are available, along with a dinner cruise on Saturday evening and a fireworks cruise on Sunday evening.

Making its first journey to Port Colborne is the tall ship Schooner Liana’s Ransom, a Class B tall ship replica of an 18^th century privateer schooner. Originally from Halifax, Nova Scotia, Liana’s Ransom moved on to warmer waters in the British Virgin Islands.  This gaff-rigged, square topsail schooner is typical of the types of ships that commonly sailed in the 1700’s and early 1800’s and carries 70 passengers.

The tail ship Empire Sandy will be sailing to Canal Days.

 The vessel boasts a one-of-a-kind experience for any passenger as it is fully outfitted with authentic feat that was used 300 years ago. A sail aboard Liana’s Ransom is guaranteed to be a memorable one as the schooner is armed with four black powder cannons and guests can experience activities such as steering the ship, hoisting the sails and firing the cannons as part of their Canal Days cruise.  Throughout the weekend, morning and afternoon and evening cruises are available for $20. 

Advance tickets for both the Empire Sandy and Schooner Liana’s Ransom are available through the Roselawn Box Office at 905-834-7572. Tickets for the morning and afternoon cruises may be purchased daily at the ticket tent on West Street. Tickets for the evening cruises are also available during the festival but must be purchased at City Hall. Tickets available during the festival are on a first-come, first-served basis.

Returning to the festival is the historic fireboat, the E.M. Cotter from the City of Buffalo, and the Canadian Coast Guard Research Vessel Limnos.  Both vessels will be available for deck tours.

For more information visit  http://portcolborne.ca/page/canal_days .

About City of Port Colborne

Located on the south coast of the scenic Niagara region, Niagara’s Port of Call has found the perfect balance – successful industrial and commercial sectors, comfortable and scenic residential areas, and an energized festival and entertainment scene that includes live theatre, white sand beaches, culinary favourites, the community’s world class Sugarloaf Marina, fishing, golfing, trails, recreation and unique shopping districts along the historic Welland Canal – truly a community that adds to the overall Niagara Experience.

(Niagara At Large always invites you to share your comments below. Please note that we only post comments from individuals who also share their first and past name with their views.)

A Foreword by Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper

 When Canada’s l premiers gather in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario later this  July for their annual ‘Council of the Confederation meeting, they won’t be alone.

Canadian activist Maude Barlow will be leading speaker at citizens summit in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario. File photo courtesy of Council of Canadians

Along with the usual swarm of media and whoever else might want to show up in one of the country’s oldest towns for a glance at the provincial leaders, a host of citizen activists from across the country, including Council of Canadian leader Maude Barlow, will be gathering at Niagara-on-the-Lake’s St. Marks Anglican Church to hold a “shadow summit.”

 The shadow summit, to take on Wednesday, July 24 and Thursday, July 25 at that historic church venue, is being organized by Barlow’s organization, along with the Ontario and Canadian Health Coalition, and you can register to attend it and participate in a mass rally that will follow the summit’s keynote speeches and workshops. Continue reading →

By Nick Fillmore

(A brief note from Niagara At Large – NAL is proud to welcome veteran Canadian journalist Nick Filmore as a contributor of news and commentary to our site.)

Highly-regarded former Toronto Mayor David Miller says he is “very excited” about becoming the new President and CEO of the World Wildlife Fund-Canada in September.

A corporate suit sits while our earth’s ice caps melt.

“They’ve made such a difference,” Miller told The Toronto Star, “and to be part of an organization that knows how to make real change is a unique opportunity.”

But there are questions about whether the WWF is effective in its work and, moreover, why the WWF and other members of the global environmental movement have made such little progress combatting the most serious threat to earth – climate change.  

The magnitude of the crisis facing humankind cannot be overstated. More than 400,000 people are dying each year, and, a confidential report from the United Nations said that three years ago corporations caused $2.2-trillion damage to the environment. Continue reading →